We're Not Lovers
by ScaliaFics94
Summary: SCOTTXMALIA: Scott, Malia, and Lydia wake up on school bus in traffic in an unknown location with no recollection of how they got there. As soon as they look for answers on their journey back home they come up up with more questions than answers that will test their friendship.
1. Chapter 1

The song for this fic is Halsey - Strangers

Lydia, Malia, and I sat on a school bus in traffic.

I gasped out of my daze to search around us.

Where are we? The highway we were on wasn't anything like a Californian highway. There was too much greenery, not enough energy, and I couldn't recognize a single land mark.

I rose from my seat to shake Lydia in front of me. I lightly tapped her shoulder, but she wouldn't stir. "Lydia?"

She simply stared forward.

I snapped my fingers in front of her face. Still nothing.

She was probably experiencing some Banshee thing that I couldn't wrap my head around, so I went to Malia in the seat over from mine.

"Malia,"

She startled. Her fist knocked into my jaw.

"Relax, Lia."

Her eyes registered me, then she relaxed when she saw me. "Scott?" She glanced around. "Where are we? Why are we on a bus?"

"Not a clue. It feels like we've been here for a while."

She noticed Lydia and shot up out of her seat. When she had no luck she turned to me. "What are we supposed to do? We can't leave her like this, but we need to get off this bus."

I looked around. "No one's leaving her."

The others on the bus were unresponsive like the driver. There was eery silence for miles.

I looked back at Malia. "Help her outside. I'm going to get a better view." I unlocked the roof escape and pulled myself through.

The first thing that jolted me was the level of noise out here that I couldn't hear down below. Car horns and groans of annoyance from other vehicles ensued. The sky was a pinkish orange all around for as far as I could see.

"I can't clear," I muttered.

"Scott, the door won't open," Malia groaned after multiple attempts to push through it

Lydia jolted awake. "What's going on?" Worry deep in her voice.

When I tried to see farther my vision just brought me back to what was in front of me. Over and over again. Panic settled in.

"Scott?" Malia called.

"I can't clear!"

Malia joined me up top.

Once she experienced what I experienced she looked at me with worry. "What does this mean?"

I looked at her. "We have to get off this bus." I nodded toward the ground, then flipped down to it.

She jumped straight down. "Was that necessary?" A slight smirk on her face.

I cracked a grin, then looked at Lydia. "Let's go."

She banged against the door. "I can't get out!"

Malia shoved her hand into the side of the bus and pulled down the metal until there was a big enough hole for Lydia to pass through.

My brow arched at her, then gestured to the people around us...That didn't seem to notice or have a problem with her act.

She gave a half shrug, then helped Lydia down.

"Where are we?" Lydia asked, her hand pressed to the back of her head, a tight look of pain on her face.

"We don't know."

We all surveyed the area. The highway mark read 250 Bypass.

Where the hell was that?

"I'll look it up," Malia reached for her phone, then stilled. "I don't have my phone. Do you have yours?" She looked at me and Lydia.

We searched with no sign of them.

I went to the nearest car. "Hi," I greeted a man and a woman. "Do you guys have a phone?"

They stared at me, then faced forward to resume complaining about the traffic jam.

"Hey," Malia stalked over and grabbed the guy by the shirt. "Phone. Now."

"Malia," I warned.

"Shut up, Scott." She growled at him. "Do you have a phone or not?"

He blankly stared at her.

My hand went to her back. "What I was going to say was I don't think they know what we're talking about."

She looked at me. "Huh?"

I gestured around us. "We already know we're in some time warp illusion so I don't think these people are real. Or any of this is real."

She let him go with a huff. "Then how the hell are we supposed to get out?"

"What do you mean time warp?" Lydia asked.

We turned to her.

I helped her onto the roof of the bus. "Try and see beyond this."

She tried as we had only she stilled. Her body flew back over the back of the bus with desolate eyes.

My heart slammed against my chest, I grabbed her wrist.

Malia came into view. "Let her go."

I trusted her enough to drop Lydia.

Lydia choked back to the present. "Great. Let's walk until we find something normal."

Malia and I locked eyes in confusion.

"Don't just skate around the fact you almost died. What happened?"

I jumped down normally this time for Malia's sake.

She gave me a thumbs up.

Lydia caught her breath. "I don't know what happened. You were right. This place isn't real. I'm not sure if we're really here or just our minds."

Malia punched my chest.

"Ow," I righted myself and gave her a look.

"We're really here." She gave a convincing look.

"How do we get home?" I asked.

Lydia closed her eyes and shook her head. "We can't stay in this same spot,"

The only other option was leave.

We started forward with a light sprint into a run.

Lighting hot pain shot through my body. My skin burned.

Malia gave a bone-chilling scream.

We were stuck in torment.

I looked at Malia. "Can I hold your hand?"

She gave it no problem.

We started to run again.

Her pain seeped into me. I refrained from letting on how much it hurt before I let go.

She narrowed in my hand with a sigh of pleasure before she grabbed it again with a sigh, my hand held against her face. "That feels good."

I doubled over in pain as I fell to my knees. The pain burned through me with full intensity. I swore I could see fire. Then it wasn't so unbearable.

My eyes went to Malia's.

Agony filled her roar, her hand tightened around mine when I tried to pull away.

My eyes flared red.

Lydia stood before us, frantically on the search for a solution. "Someone help!"

Malia fell to her knees next to me, her big hazelnut eyes on mine before they turned blue.

"Go back," Lydia rushed out. "You have to go back!"

Together we crawled backward until the pain subsided.

She fell into my chest.

With my pain lessened I reached for hers to take the rest.

Her warm breath fanned across my skin as her head rested on mine. "What the hell was that?"

"You're in a barrier," Lydia ran our way. "If you cross it you feel pain, that has to be it."

We finished catching our breath then sat up.

Malia's hand went to my knee absently. Whether she knew it or not she took some of my pain.

If we kept taking each other's pain there would be no point.

Without meaning it to come off as rude I shoved her hand off.

She cut her eye at me but ignored it. "If we can't leave then how are we supposed to get home?"

Lydia looked worried. "I'll have to go look around, see if I can find anything."

"Are you sure you want to do that alone?"

She shrugged. "What choice do I have?" She headed for the restaurants on the right of us. "If I'm not back in an hour then you find another way out."

Malia hugged her. "We're not leaving you behind."

"Do what you have to do." She pulled away to hug me.

"We'll look around. Meet us back here at the bus," I told her.

She ran off before he could second guess herself.

Malia punched her hand through the guy's car. "If anything happens to her..."

I had faith in Lydia's ability to travel. "She can take care of herself,"

We walked through the cars to test our limits.

"We can mark the borders in our-"

Malia's fist knocked into a taillight. "We can mark it with these."

I stared at her. "Okay, that works too."

As soon as we felt the unbearable pain of the barrier telling us we couldn't pass we marked the locations.

"So who do you think is doing this to us?" She asked.

We continued to walk through the cars, none of the passengers paid us Any mind.

"I don't know," I muttered. "How many enemies have we made?"

She glanced at me. "How much time do we have?"

I cracked a grin at her.

She chuckled, then it wiped away. "I hope we're the only ones here."

"Yeah, at least we're together."

She nodded. "I could've woken up with anyone."

I sighed. "They thought we were easy targets but they don't know how well we work together,"

She playfully pushed me a few feet away. "Aww,"

My head shook at her as I gave a single laugh. "Don't give me that. 'Aww'. Now I'm embarrassed."

She laughed, her eyes crinkled with it.

It was nice to see in the midst of things.

I caught a glimpse of movement further down.

"Did you see that?"

She turned serious. "No. What was it?"

I couldn't catch a scent so I used my night vision and stepped closer.

She walked with me, her claws readied.

It dashed across the street again.

"Okay, that time I saw." She whispered.

A car alarm went off behind us.

I saw something else dash across from the direction we came. I looked back at Malia.

We locked eyes, then growls ripped out of our throats.

Bullets sprayed into the air.

We ducked to the ground.

The passengers still didn't seek affected by that.

"What do you want?" I yelled. "Who are you?"

We looked at each other, then rolled under the cars on either side.

She had fear in his eyes. "What do you want from us?" She yelled.

Their footsteps got closer. Killing for survival wasn't a code I lived by but if this wasn't reality then did it matter? And if it was in our heads they wouldn't really die.

I rolled from under the car, I grabbed the antenna, reared my arm back to throw it straight into the forehead of the guy near the bus.

He fell to the ground.

Malia did the same for the other shooter.

The weight of his finger on the trigger shot bullets into the air, his gun aimed at me. Hopefully, it wouldn't hurt too bad, if it was all in my head maybe I could tell myself it didn't hurt. Doubtful since we felt so much earlier with the barrier.

Just before they could penetrate my skin, Malia flung herself in front of me, her hand pushed me to the ground. She fell on top of me with the bullets in her back.

My eyes widened at the blood that poured out of her. "What did you do?" I spoke, more to myself than to her. I carefully lifted her shirt up.

She tried to keep the pain at bay, but I could tell it was too much just from looking at her.

It seeped from her and into me.

"Scott," She protested weakly from blood loss.

"I didn't do it on purpose," I was going to but my body had done it automatically. I counted five bullets in her back. She had to be suffering.

Her skin broke out into a sweat. "You have to take them out."

"I know," I measured the area. "Not here." I gently scooped her up into my arms as carefully as I could, but I still had to apply pressure on her lower back where she was shot.

She winced sharply. Her eyes shined as she leaned her head onto my shoulder. She placed her arms around my neck.

Seeing her like that hurt worse the pain I felt earlier. And she was in it because of me.

"Don't do that," She mumbled.

I walked us across the highway. "You already know that I can't help it."

Her breath tickled the pulse point on my neck in a way inappropriate for our current state. Or any state. Her eyes flickered.

"Not today, you have to stay awake. I've got to take these bullets out."

She spit up blood with a cough and a groan. "Sorry," She referred to the blood on my shirt and neck.

"Don't worry about it."

She tried to wipe me off, but the motion only hurt her more.

"Stay still,"

"What about the barrier?"

I had forgotten about that.

She looked up at me like she was the problem here.

The shame she wore was pure selfless. She had taken bullets for me and now she felt guilty that she was the reason we had to try to go through the barrier again.

What was I going to do with her?

My eyes tried to display bravery and faith into hers. "We'll go through it." I ran to the closest marker with the knowledge that this was about to hurt but we'd been to hell and back so we could handle it.

We screamed as we entered. I took one step at a time through what felt like a pool of jello, which made our stay there that much more excruciating. By the time we exited it our skin had blemished with first-degree burn marks. The act of witnessing it ran chills down my body. If I was barely able to recover from that I know Malia was in worse shape.

"I'm fine," She sensed my worry. "Keep going."

That was the thing I loved about her the most, her ability to remain strong in most situations anyone else would crumble in.

I carried on to a vacant bar and grille. I sat her on a table, then searched in the back for a first aid kit, a bottle of alcohol, and a towel. "You're okay," I dumped the materials on the table, then ran back to the kitchen to heat up a knife on a burner.

Her groans grew lesser and lesser.

"Hey, don't give up on me now." I shot out of the kitchen to her side. I tore open the back of her shirt, poured some of the alcohol onto her wounds.

Her screams increased again.

"That's not the worst part," I handed her the towel to clench between her teeth.

"You're the worst at pep talks."

I'd seen my mom do this enough times, I had done it enough times to know that if I didn't do this correctly I could hit major nerves and something could go horribly wrong. Thank God Malia was of the supernatural variety. That took some of my nerves out.

"Just do it, McCall." She begged with a rushed irritation.

Knowing I needed to for them out now I scraped the yellow tipped knife through the five flesh wounds for each bullet, her skin sizzled from the heat.

"You got this, McCall." Her voice broke finally. "Oww-hahhh-huh!"

The sounds she made weighed on me enough to promise myself I'd never hear them again.

"Stay with me, I'm almost there."

The bloody flattened bullets clanked on the wood table. I poured more alcohol onto her back.

"Fuck me!" She yelled.

I pressed my lips together to hold in the laugh that would result in a dirty look and likely her stabbing me with the knife.

She caught her breath. "Don't say it."

I bandaged her up in a slightly calmer manner, cleaned up the area, and washed my hands.

When I sat in the chair beside her I noticed how pale and drowsy she looked.

My hand drifted toward her shoulder.

She turned her weak, muddy doe-like eyes on me. "Thanks,"

I placed a kiss on her forehead instinctively without meaning to do so.

She stared at me, but I didn't know what was behind the obvious pain and lack of energy.

A tired sigh from a whole other reason left me. "Why'd you do it?" My eyes gazed into hers for an answer I could accept. "You could've gotten yourself killed being brave and stupid," My worry transformed into anger.

Her mouth twitched into what looked like a smile, but her dimples didn't dent for me. "I got to save you for once," She muttered sleepily, then drifted off.

I didn't have time for my heart to warm at her words, concern filled me to the brim. "Malia," I shook her. "Wake up, you can't go to sleep."

She didn't open her eyes.

"Come on," My hand smoothed her hair back, then opened her top eyelid. "Wake up."

Her eyes were unresponsive.

Dread attacked me.

I hunched over her protectively. "No, Lia. Open your eyes, you have to open your eyes."

I didn't know what happened if we died here. Her pulse wasn't completely gone, but it wasn't completely there either.

A hot wetness filled my eyes as I cursed. "Elizabeth!"

She stayed still, her heartbeat slowed considerably.

"Dammit!" My hand slammed into the nearest surface. It felt good to let out the emotions so I punched others things, broke glasses on the floor or wall. I kicked a chair into the air and when it hit the wall it splintered. Blood rushed to my ears, I couldn't hear much of anything other than my own anger building.

"I'm fine,"

I held the table mid air and stopped at the sound of her voice with a turn. "You're alive,"

"Duh," Her voice weak.

I took the room in large strides until I was crouched on her eye level. I breathed out an air of thankfulness. My head rested on the corner of the table.

"You were worried about me," Her voice crackled from a dry throat. "Aww,"

My head rose to look at her. I was about to tell her off but then I saw a hint of a dimple and all of a sudden it didn't matter that her joke was insensitive because I had been terrified of losing her.

"Don't do that. Don't 'Aww' me." I gave a tiny grin.

We stared at each other, relief that we still had someone by our side in this mess.

I had to admit with all she'd been through she still looked flawlessly beautiful. Not that it was all about beauty but Malia, you know, had it.

Her eyes squeezed shut in agony. "We've got to meet Lydia back at the bus,"

We had ventured far enough that with my carrying her we should leave sooner rather than later to meet her on time so she wouldn't think anything happened to us. Well, anything worth is not getting back up. We'd always get back up.

I brought her close to me.

She had a look of intrigue on her face.

My forehead creased in worry. "What?"

She grinned.

As we neared the location of the bus I held her legs while she piggybacked on me.

"I've always wanted to do this to you," Her chin rested on my shoulder while her arms hung down my front. "Although, I wish it was under different circumstances."

My brow arched as I turned to her. "What kind of circumstances?"

Her closeness forgotten, our mouths neared each others. There was a moment of shock and hesitation with the tingle of proximity between us.

I faced forward as soon as I got my wits about me.

She cleared her throat.

Lydia's hair caught my attention forward.

We waved at each other from about a yard away.

Malia's tension melted away, most of it, at the sight of her. "She's okay," She cheered.

I couldn't help but laugh. Among the despair in the air, our escape felt possible.

"I found something promising!" Lydia shouted.

Abruptly, a motorcycle jumped out of the air through what looked like a portal to another world. The person on it wore all black tactical gear. They raised a gun into the air and aimed it at Lydia.

"Lydia!" I warned.

"Behind you!" Malia screamed.

She turned as they closed the distance between them.

"Guys, run!" She begged.

She jumped to the side when he shot at her, she landed on the ground, then frantically stood.

I wanted to run for her, but with Malia on my back and injured I didn't have time to carefully place her down in safety and run the necessary feet to Lydia in time.

The person on the motorcycle holstered his weapon to snatch her up onto the back of his seat, then he pulled out his gun and aimed it at us.

I ran us out of the way behind the lot of nonmoving cars. Malia nervously moved to untangle from me and sit beside me.

They passed by us with a loud zoom and then they disappeared into another mid air portal.

We stared at the open sky in utter confusion and disbelief. We couldn't voice what just happened. We were so close to finding a way out. Hell, Lydia had it, it seemed like. Now we had more questions than answers.

"No!" Malia cried out desperately. She tried to stand but doubled over in pain.

When I tried to make her sit she fought me on it.

"She can't be gone," She shook her head in between tears. "She can't be."

I brought her to my lap with loving force, my arms encased her so she could feel some form of companionship in what felt like our darkest time.

But I had a soul-chilling feeling that it actually had yet to come.

A/N: So this was just a dream I had about Scalia lasts night that I thought was cool and had to get out! I really only dreamed that Scott had asked for Malia's hand to take her pain and she relished in it and the rest I obviously made up. Anyway, I plan to update this in rotation to Til Forever Runs Out, Howling, and There's No Secrets Here. PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW YALL LIKED IT BELOW:D

Also, the whole "I can't clear" line Scott said was in my dream. I know it doesn't make make sense but I didn't want to change that part of my dreams cuz I was shook when I woke up lol. I also wrote the majority of this on my phone because my laptop charger stopped working yesterday when I got off. So that was fun.


	2. Chapter 2

Hey yall this is just a notice I'm posting on all of my current fics: I do have literally several fics I'm working on so if the one this is posted on isn't updated as fast as you'd like keep that in mind. I try to update the fic that gets the most reviews and in the order I posted them. I also have about five other new Scalia fics that I plan on posting once some of these are done or close to being done. I HAVE 12 SCALIA FICS IF YOU'RE HURTING FOR MORE SCALIA.

Also remember that not reviewing doesn't help speed up the update time and writing "when are you updating" or "update soon pls" isn't a review at all. It's a comment. Being brutually honest about this, most writers look at those comments and roll their eyes because they thought it was something to get excited over. If that hurts your feelings, then I'm sorry. It's not meant to. It's meant to open your eyes about how things are on our end. What's the thing most writers ask for at the end of their chapters? Reviews, right?

I've said this numerous times in the annoucements at the end of most chapters in different fics, I CAN'T REPLY TO YOUR COMMENT OR REVIEW IF YOU'RE LEAVING IT AS A GUEST. SO MULTIPLE PEOPLE ASKING WHEN I'M UPDATING IS ONLY GOING TO RESULT IN A POST LIKE THIS WHERE IT'S NOT AN ACTUAL CHAPTER AND YOU GET UPSET THAT IT'S NOT AN ACTUAL CHAPTER. ASK ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA WHEN I'M UPDATING. THAT'S THE BEST WAY TO GET AN ANSWER OR DM ME ON HERE. MY TWITTER IS StavosBrooke my tumblr is brostavorunsmylifenowareyouhappy and my insta is coach_deniqua I want to be able to reach out to everyone that leaves a comment or review but I can't if you're logged in as a guest. If you don't want to make an account then I'd love if you left your tumblr name or twitter so we could chat. :)

I do have to work. I do have other things going on in my life. I love writing, it's what I want to do, don't get me wrong. However, on days where I'm working on one chapter for a few days straight and there's little feedback I get disheartened. When I put out three fics in three days back to back two weeks ago with little reviews I got disheartened. Not everyone's going to review. I get that. BUT YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO SEE THAT PEOPLE HAVE READ SOMETHING YOU'VE SPENT HOURS AND DAYS ON WHEN YOU COULD'VE BEEN DOING SOMETHING ELSE AND THEY HAVEN'T GIVEN FEEDBACK. THAT REALLY HURTS. I get consistent feedback from a handful of people, thanks to yall I keep writing but more often than not I feel like watching Netflix or going out with friends or reading something else or writing my own books. I had four days off this week and three of those days I planned on updating three fics but I didn't because I felt like if they're not reviewing then I'm going to chill instead of write from literally 8am to 11pm or later on a chapter. I also don't like to write fanfiction when I'm upset about lack of reviews because it puts me in a bad frame of mind. It'll wear off in a day or so lol.

If it's not me, just show some love to the comment section of some fanfiction writers story. I've been doing this for a few years now on this site and I made the mistake of making an angry post on my Bellarke fic about lack or reviews. I learned my lesson on that one yall it wasn't pretty. I got those reviews but not the kind I wanted XD. My point is, I'm not trying to be a nazi about reviews BUT THEY'RE IMPORTANT. IF YOU DON'T LEAVE THEM THEN YOU'RE PART OF THE REASON IT'S TAKING SO LONG TO UPDATE POINT BLANK PERIOD. YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIKE THAT TRUTH BUT IT's A TRUTH. ASK ANY OTHER FANFICTION WRITER AND THEY'LL SAY THE SAME THING.

Also, this isn't meant to be an angry shaking my fist post. It's about lack of reviews sure. It's also about properly reaching out to everyone that takes the time to leave a comment or review. It's about miscommunication. It's MAINLY about me telling you that I'll get to every fic this was posted in eventually, just not as soon as some of yall hoped. I've got a lot of fics going on outside of my actual life. My main priority right now is Til Forever Runs Out. Not sure when I'll get to the others because I'm getting a second job again. Go check out JCarabaguiaz's fic, show them some love. She came to me with how rude this came off and that's not it's meant to be. If you have questions or concerns you know how to reach out to me

Thanks for your attention.

ALSO IF YOU'VE NOT STARTED ETHEREALMINDSS SCALIA FIC "SMOKE AND MIRRORS" WE ARE DOING A FEW CROSSOVER CHAPTERS WITH OUR SCALIA FICS. MY CHARACTERS WILL BE IN HER WORLD IN HER NEXT CHAPTER. DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE I'M DUMB FOR KEEP REPEATING MYSELF CUZ I STILL GET PEOPLE SAYING THEY DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT AND I'VE BEEN LOUD CAPPING THIS FOR A LITTLE OVER A MONTH NOW IN THE ANNOUCEMENTS.


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